Ipswich Jets v Mackay Cutters at North Ipswich Reserve on Saturday, August 19 – 3pm
Ipswich Jets
18. Jayden Connors 2. Michael Purcell 3. Marion Seve 4. Tu’u Maori 5. Richard Pandia 6. Chris Ash 7. Dane Phillips (c) 8. Mitch Carpenter 13. Hugh Sedger 10. Nat Neale 11. Josh Seage 12. Seb Pandia 22. Tyson Lofipo 9. Peter Whittaker 15. Lachlan Roe 16. Huskie Teatau 21. Jesse Roberts
Coach: Ben Walker and Shane Walker
Mackay Cutters
1. Jack Joass 2. Johnny Faletagoa’i 3. Kellen Jenner 4. Nathan Saumalu 5. Yamba Bowie 6. Nicho Hynes 7. Cooper Bambling 8. Braden Uele 9. Aaron Booth 10. Nicholas Brown 11. Andrew Davey 12. Setaimata Sa 13. Shane Wright 14. Lona Kaifoto 15. Bennett Leslie 16. Kouma Samson 17. Jack Blagbrough 18. Blake Atherton
Coach: Steve Sheppard
LAST TIME
Round 19 2016
IPSWICH JETS 38 (Michael Purcell 4, Jesse Roberts, Wes Conlon, Tyson Lofipo tries; Wes Conlon 5 goals) def MACKAY CUTTERS 6 (Andrew Davey try; Liam Taylor goal) at North Ipswich Reserve.
Head to Head: Ipswich Jets 12 Mackay Cutters 6
ROUND 24
The Mackay Cutters travel to Ipswich on Saturday. It hasn’t been a happy place to come in the past for the Cutters. Mackay hasn’t won in Ipswich since 2013.
Round 16 2013 – Mackay 20 (Kalifa Faifai Loa, Chris Gesch, Matt Minto, Liam Taylor tries; Taylor 2 goals) def Ipswich 18 (Jarrod McInally 2, Jacob Ling tries; Doanld Malone 3 goals).
The Cutters’ record in Ipswich won’t be pleasant reading for them having only won twice at the Reserve and once at Briggs Road. Although they did win a Grand Final at the Reserve in 2013.
The Jets have won four out of the last five games between these two sides. The Jets have it over the Cutters in the overall wins 12-6.
The Jets are coming off the bye while the Cutters got beaten by the Bears 28-16.
The Cutters are in 8th spot and on 24 points, compared to the Jets 7th spot on 26 points.
The Cutters have scored 11 more points than the Jets this season and the Jets have let in 11 less points in defence.
CUTTERS
The Cutters beat the Falcons two weeks ago so they’re not in terrible form. They have won three games away from home and their record in Ipswich isn’t great so they will need to overcome that this week.
Cooper Brambling
Brambling has played 21 games this year for the Cutters and scored 51 points with nine tries and seven goals. He’s a busy half who likes to get his hands on the ball. He will test the Jets going down short sides. Brambling has a strong kicking game, finding space with 241 metres against the Sunshine Coast.
Yamba Bowie
Bowie is the Cutters’ leading try scorer this season with 13 tries from 21 games. Bowie plays on the left wing for the Cutters. In the Cutters last win against the Falcons Bowie made 124 metres and had four tackle breaks. Bowie has carried his team forward for 2080 meters this season.
Nick Brown
Brown leads the Cutters for metres gained and runs at the defence. His 2260 metres this season from 276 runs and his 696 tackles make him a high work rate forward for the Cutters.
JETS
The Jets are coming off the bye and before that a loss to the Hunters. The Jets will be back home and it’s Old Boys’ Day- two pretty big reasons for a great win.
Nemani Valekapa
Let me take you through Nem’s last five weeks of football. 235m, 218m, 180m, 201m and 263m.
1097m from five games, 100 hit ups. Not too sure what else I can add. Those numbers tell a pretty compelling story.
Nem will be a big hole for the Jets’ to fill this week.
Nat Neale
Nat Neale has already surpassed his tackling effort from 2016. Neale made 671 tackles last season and missed 20. This year he’s made 708 with two games to go and missed 29 tackles.
Neale also tops the off-loads with 71 and the tackle breaks with 95.
Marion Seve
The big stat that stand out for me in relation to Seve is two try assists.
He’s always been a talented runner of the ball but this season he’s offloaded 13 times in 15 games and created two tries for the Jets.
The Jets are missing Sam Martin 139 games, Wes Conlon 69 games, Nemani Valekapa 103 games, Billy McConnachie 74 games and Luke Capewell 105 games that’s 490 Intrust Super Cup games sitting in the stands on Saturday.
The Jets will take on the Cutters on Old Boys’ Day, wanting to win their last two games. The Jets have had plenty of great times against the Cutters in the past.
Ben and Shane coached their first game against the Cutters in 2010, they’re closing in on 100 wins now for the Jets.
The Jets had their equal biggest ever win against the Cutters in August 2014 at the North Ipswich Reserve 62-10. It was 10-10 just after half time before the Jets scored 52 points in 39 minutes.
Who can forget Marmin Barba in 2014 scoring four tries in two games against Mackay and kicking eight goals adding 32 points to his Jets’ record?
Hopefully Saturday is another great chapter.